If
by Swordage
Summary: Even when they're home together, the Heartless will return. They'll fight again. Spoilers for KH2.


"So, as long as there's darkness in someone's heart, there's Heartless," Sora informed Riku, swinging up onto the paopu tree and reaching for a fruit. "And we know there's always darkness in _someone's_ heart, somewhere. And so the Heartless build up, right, and the wielder of the Keyblade has to go kick some ass."

"Hmm." Riku blew sand away from his nose with a small huff, shifting slightly to feel the tension of almost-sunburn tightening his back. He didn't bother opening his eyes, even when Sora nudged his prone form with a toe.

"Riku, this is important. It builds up, right, and last time it took like what a year to be really bad, but maybe that was my fault because I wasn't really thorough. But anyway, uh, my point was... Riku, why are you pretending to be dead?"

"I'm tanning," Riku grumbled. "Enjoying the feel of the sun. I got pale."

"Oh," Sora said in a small voice, understanding without having to be told outright that a life in darkness led to pale skin. "Uh, anyway... So the Heartless."

"Yes."

"I can feel them." Riku could honestly feel Sora's intent gaze burning holes in his spine. With a sigh, he pushed himself up and reached for the oil.

"So can I," he said gravely, smearing oil across his shoulders to stave off the burn. He'd really been enjoying the lassitude, but perhaps he'd gone a little overboard. "You plan on doing something about it."

"Yeah." Sora kicked his feet in the air, finally biting into the paopu. "I talked to Kairi."

"She learned a lot from you," Riku admitted, looking out across the islet for her distinctive hair. "She's at home?"

"School. Riku... I don't want to go alone." Sora was giving him that burning stare again, the one that made Riku feel like something inside him wasn't dead yet. Slowly, deliberately, Sora offered the paopu. He'd taken a single bite.

"...You couldn't leave me behind if you wanted to." Riku gravely accepted the fruit, studying the shape of Sora's teeth marks. "Kairi will kill us if we leave her again."

"I'm used to fighting with two others," Sora pointed out. "Like you said, she's learned a lot."

"Yeah," Riku murmured. "We'll go. The three of us." He bit into the paopu, wincing slightly as his teeth broke the skin and slid through pulp. It was like biting flesh. It was too sweet.

He didn't take another bite, and when Kairi came to the islet after school, she took great satisfaction in biting off one of the yellow arms and tossing the rest out to sea.

They never sparred with blades. It felt too serious, as though they were trying to kill each other. They used wooden swords instead and nursed the splinters when the sticks hit with enough force to shatter. Sora knew how hard to hit to break a spine; Riku knew how to jab a blade through an armpit to reach the heart. They still practised together, mostly because they couldn't practise with anyone else. Kairi watched them and learned from the sidelines, and sometimes she got them to talk about it. About fighting, and about who they fought beside, and about what they used to fight. How to follow a blizzard with a leaping slash. How to aim for the eyes, because the eyes were always weak. How to leap out of the range of grasping claws. What exactly would happen if you didn't.

Riku told her that part. Sora didn't like to think about that, how his keyblade had been tearing apart people. People that could have been mostly good. People like Riku. People like Kairi.

She asked Sora to teach her magic sometime after that, and he did. The first spell he taught her was Fire; the second was Cure. She was better than him at both within a week, giving him a tired but triumphant grin as she healed the slices in his hands from another shattered practise sword. He smiled back, but it was strained. There was something haunting him and Riku, a darkness behind their eyes.

"Take me with you," Kairi ordered them beside the paopu tree. "I won't be left behind again. I can fight, too."

"Yes," Riku said somberly, "You can."

"You can't get rid of us," Sora laughed awkwardly.

The next day, Riku taught them how to find and follow the paths between worlds. How to move along them through force of will. The Keyblade helped ease the journey, lighting and strengthening the pathway, but they still held hands tightly enough that none could feel their fingers for an hour.

Kairi had made the mistake of mentioning they hadn't slept in beds for the last month. When Sora finally gave up on sleeping alone in Leon's bed, he clambered in with her and grumbled about girly pink sheets. Riku joined them not much later, setting his back against Sora's so he could watch the room.

"Just go to sleep," Sora mumbled, yawning widely in Kairi's face.

"They're waiting," Riku murmured, palm curled loose and ready in front of his face. His fingers twitched. "I'll wake you."

Kairi sighed, pushing herself up to punch Riku. The borrowed nightshirt slipped down her shoulder. "Wake me for second watch," she ordered. "You haven't slept for two nights."

"I'm fine," Riku mumbled self-consciously, rubbing the bridge of his nose with the heel of his hand. "I'll wake you."

"Good." Kairi rolled over, patiently waiting for Sora to settle against her back before dozing off. Sora waited until she whistled faintly with every breath before he twisted around and slung an arm and leg over Riku. Neither mentioned that if the Heartless did attack, they'd both be hampered and slow to react. Sora was warm. The air creeping under the covers where Riku had awkwardly thrown his own limbs off the bed was cold. Sora huffed softly in Riku's ear, hot damp breath, and gently began to snore.

They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses as well as they know their own, so it was a little bit of a surprise when Sora sat by the campfire and murmured, "There's something I want to try." They'd cleared the area of Heartless and still felt a little buzzed, adrenaline wearing off as they went through mundane motions. Sora was twitching.

"Come here," he said with complete confidence. "Trust me."

Kairi did without question, so she took his hand and smiled. Sora grinned back and held the other out to Riku, palm up. Riku hesitated, and Kairi saw that darkness in his eyes, but he took Sora's hand.

They merged.

They gasped as one, Sora's lungs expanding with three wills. They nearly thrummed with energy, tense and ready and excited and weightless. There was a moment where Kairi realized utterly and completely what it meant to be the Keyblade Master, to have a pure heart and a will strong enough to move worlds. There was a breath where she thought that maybe she'd like to stay like this forever, held secret inside Sora's heart. Riku's mind brushed against hers, strong and cool and familiar, and then.

Then.

Sora let them go.

Kairi spasmed, reaching out to hold on even as she realized it had been all Sora, Sora's will holding them together, Sora's will that put them back in their bodies when he couldn't hold them any longer. Riku coughed harshly, and she remembered to breathe.

Sora flopped onto his back, a goofy grin spread across his face as they recovered.

"That," he said cheerfully, "was Drive."

The first time is like every other time. Riku's hit three times in a row, claws jabbing and scratching at his arms and legs - none of them are more than scratches, and it hurts his pride more than his body to be knocked off balance. A glance at Kairi and Sora reveals a similar situation, although Kairi's more desperate to get room from the creeping shadows. By the way she's drooping, she needs an Ether. Riku begins to work his way over to her.

"_Drive!_" Sora shouts, and that's the only warning they get before his sheer force of will sucks them in. It's not unpleasant, being in Drive; Riku's always astonished at the simplicity of Sora's wants. Beat the Heartless. It thrums through him in a reaffirming chant; Beat the Heartless.

There's something wrong.

_Kill the Heartless,_ something snarls. The Heartless around them chitter hunger, something Riku can always hear, but this isn't them. _Kill the Heartless Kill the Heartless Kill the Heartless_

The Heartless are already shattering into mist and tatters of darkness by the time Riku realizes he knows this feeling. The unimaginable power of the darkness, so thickly entrenched it pours off their dark body in streams. Sora's singleminded purpose _Kill the Heartless_ has harnessed it better than Riku ever has, and they strike out again and again againagainagain. Frantic, he calls for his blade, for the Keyblade, for ANYTHING but rending claws that suck in the light and never let it go.

They tear apart the last Heartless. They stop, crouched in the transient remains, and look for more. _Kill the Heartless Kill the Heartless_ Kairi's screaming somewhere inside them. The shared body jerks around, searching. _Kill the Heartless **but we are the Heartless!**_

They collapse seperately, gasping for air that dark form didn't need. Sora drops to his knees and pukes. Kairi has a tightness in her jaw that probably means she's trying to hold in that scream of horror. Riku forces his legs to work and staggers over to Sora, jerking him into a hug.

"Hush," he whispers, "It's okay. It won't happen again."

"It will," Sora chokes, tears dripping off his chin. He curls into Riku, trembling and weak. "I can't stop it. It just... It's like I'm cut in half."

"Shhhh." Riku holds him, and Kairi creeps closer to put her arms around them both. They hold each other up and stagger to their feet together. This place is safe for the moment.

"It will happen again," Sora whispers, rubbing the tears from his cheeks. "But it's useful."

"Don't let it take you," Riku says harshly. "No matter what. Don't let the darkness in."

Kairi sniffles and digs in her pack for a potion, splitting it between the three of them. It's mostly a waste, but it gives them a warm burst inside. They pull themselves together and move on. There's more work to be done.

It's two weeks before Sora attempts to Drive again.


End file.
